I've decided to reread the entire Ramona series -- I think I only read the last two as a kid. This is actually the second one (my library doesn't haveI've decided to reread the entire Ramona series -- I think I only read the last two as a kid. This is actually the second one (my library doesn't have Beezus and Ramona on audiobook, and I just decided last night to get the audiobooks to listen to on the drive to Austin). I had forgotten how genuinely laugh-out-loud funny this book is -- also, Stockard Channing did the reading for the audiobook, and she was fantastic. Her sullen Howie voice was a thing of beauty....more

Gorgeous rhythm (it didn't go as well in storytime as I'd hoped, though, but I don't think that's the book's fault), and stunning illustrations. PhamGorgeous rhythm (it didn't go as well in storytime as I'd hoped, though, but I don't think that's the book's fault), and stunning illustrations. Pham very beautiully conveys the magic and wonder of the everyday -- also really excellently done as the world from a child's point of view. ...more

Even more gutting than it was when I was a kid. This time I was most powerfully affected by Jess' sense of himself as a failed man -- his perception tEven more gutting than it was when I was a kid. This time I was most powerfully affected by Jess' sense of himself as a failed man -- his perception that his sensitivity, his fear, his desire for affection made him weak and emasculated. I don't remember that at all, but the last time I read this I was twelve....more

A ton of fun. I read it to some second graders today and it got huge laughs (and a few raised eyebrows from the teachers). The picture of the beaversA ton of fun. I read it to some second graders today and it got huge laughs (and a few raised eyebrows from the teachers). The picture of the beavers crossing the Delaware KILLS me; that joke appeals to me on a very fundamental level....more

**spoiler alert** The premise is, Olivia tells her friend a secret, and the friend accidentally spills it, and it keeps getting spread -- and getting**spoiler alert** The premise is, Olivia tells her friend a secret, and the friend accidentally spills it, and it keeps getting spread -- and getting distorted as it spreads -- until the friend confesses to Olivia that she screwed up. The nameless friend narrates the book. It's a Coretta Scott King honor book for the illustrations.

So I really liked the book as it went along -- in particular, I REALLY liked the art -- even though it's all silhouettes, it's very obviously about African Americans, and I dug the concept of the balloon to represent secrets -- the way it slips away from you, the way it gets bigger and bigger as the story goes on.

But the final two pages read:

Together we both learned a lesson.Of this we're very sure."Don't tell a *single* person a secret.Or it won't be a secret *anymore!*"

And it's a picture of Olivia and the narrator whispering to each other with a big NO symbol. So... the message is not that you should keep your friends' confidences? The message is not, don't screw up and be a bad friend? OLIVIA is the one at fault here? I know the message applies to both Olivia and the narrator -- who both shared it with one person -- but the image is of Olivia whispering to the friend. I was really on board right until the final message was "you were wrong to assume your friend was trustworthy."...more

OK, Alvin Ho is my new favorite. There's his voice -- distinctive, neurotic, precocious, and freaking *adorable.* There's the format of the book -- wiOK, Alvin Ho is my new favorite. There's his voice -- distinctive, neurotic, precocious, and freaking *adorable.* There's the format of the book -- with lists and diagrams and illustrations (and of course I loved LeUyen Pham's illustrations).

But I think what I loved most is that I really want to live in Alvin's world. He's part of a tight-knit community -- Concord, Massachusetts (which is hard to spell) -- he's part of a very close family, he's part of a school system where they teach kids Thoreau in second grade, he is happily Chinese and happily American with no friction where the two meet. He loves Patriot Day and playing Minutemen and Red Coats and will also inform you that he comes from a line of farmer-warriors dating back to 714 AD. His granddad loves baseball, and teaches them all the different pitches, and also loves to sew and makes their Halloween costumes. Alvin's deskmate is Flea, a girl with disabilities whose disabilities are not really treated as a hinderance for her (indeed, Alvin is hugely jealous of her eyepatch). When she tells him the eyepatch is because she's descended from pirates, he thinks, "It's just as I suspected."

He's smart and funny and terrified and Hansel and Gretel are going to need YEARS of therapy after being stuck in a cage, which is why that's the scariest story of all.

I loved every single thing about this book and I cannot wait for more....more

So this is my favorite Madeleine L'Engle book of them all, and I like to reread it every summer. (I didn't reread in 2009, so this is the first time iSo this is my favorite Madeleine L'Engle book of them all, and I like to reread it every summer. (I didn't reread in 2009, so this is the first time in two years.) It's a Newbery Honor book, which I didn't even realize until this year -- this is the first year I've ever really looked at that medal on the cover and thought about it.

Even though A Wrinkle in Time is probably the best written of her children's books, I've always liked Vicky better, and I've always found Adam to be the more crush-worthy guy. They are much less epic than Meg and Calvin -- except, of course, when they aren't.

It holds up as well as it always has, but every time I read I find new things, new meanings, new confirmations that we are here and what we do matters....more

**spoiler alert** First, a minor quibble -- I bought the paperback and it has a different cover and it's AWFUL. It already looks dated. The original h**spoiler alert** First, a minor quibble -- I bought the paperback and it has a different cover and it's AWFUL. It already looks dated. The original hardback cover was amazing -- why the change, Hyperion?

Second -- so I read this book for the first time in the summer of 2008, and spent a lot of time trying to decide how I felt about it. This time, the same.

The book is incredibly well written -- this is my favorite example of the "intrusive narrator," by far. So many of her (because even apart from the writer being a woman, the narrator is very clearly not a guy -- she reminds me of a 21st century version of the narrator of the Anne of Green Gables books) observations about gender dynamics had me half rolling around in pleasure at the obvious truth of it and half unbelievably depressed at the obvious truth of it.

Last time I felt that the book's biggest weakness was that there wasn't enough evidence that Frankie was really in love with Matthew. This time, I think there's plenty of evidence -- but what Frankie is really in love with isn't so much Matthew as Matthew's world -- the way they have more fun than anyone else in the room, the fierceness of their loyalty to each other, the way their confidence in themselves gives them room to be magnanimous and funny and sloppy, because they are going to run the world someday. And Lockhart really sells their world -- I was not unenvious of the boys I knew like that myself, at Frankie's age, and I remember that sense of longing, to be a part of a world with that degree of intimacy and loyalty, but understanding that I was just by default not allowed in. Frankie is alone in a way those boys have never known -- will never know. And Frankie knows, to a certain degree, that she wants Matthew's world, but I think she believes that hinges on Matthew, when it doesn't. Matthew is the entrance, but I think her feelings for Matthew himself are not really love, so much as lust and fondness and fifteen years old and crushing hard.

Also, this time, it is much more obvious to me that while Frankie thinks this is all about Matthew, it's also, to a significant degree, maybe even mostly, about impressing Alpha. And that Frankie believes that impressing him was worth it -- even at the great expense of how it all shook out -- is perhaps the most telling thing about her. I mean, Alpha concludes his final email to her:

I don't actually think it is possible to overestimate you.Although you are not a nice person.

And Frankie feels "victorious and hopeful." (Also interesting are the parallels not just between how smart Frankie and Alpha both are -- because let's face it, Matthew is not her intellectual equal, only Alpha comes close -- but how they are both outsiders, that they arrive to the group without the built-in cache of money and standing, and they both go to fairly extreme lengths to make up for it.)

Last time I struggled with the ending -- it's not especially satisfying (because it's so realistic), but I couldn't have said what ending I would have preferred. Only that it sucked that for Alpha it's genius and for Frankie it's psycho and that she ends up in the same place as Star -- like they never even knew her.

This time I wondered about her last run-in with Matthew -- where was Alpha? Why wasn't he with them? I hope to God Alpha never gets over his anger at her -- can you imagine a world where Frankie and Alpha team up? That way lies world destruction.

What's also complicated about this book for me is that I normally don't much care for books where I don't like the protagonist, and I don't much like Frankie. I find her hunger easy to sympathize with, but her methods for dealing with it are not. And her dismissal of the psychologist's advice -- so yes, field hockey is rated as "nothing" by the more powerful half of the population, but does that make it worthless? Is the goal to let women into the old boys' clubs, or to destroy the clubs altogether? I think Frankie -- at least right now -- is opting for the former. I hope as she grows up she chooses the latter.

But I like this book -- I even love it -- but reading it makes me feel weird for like a week afterwards, because I feel like I got smacked in the face with these truths about how the world works I was happier pretending I didn't know....more

This book is GREAT. I listened to the audiobook, and I think this might be the best matchup of book and reader I've ever heard. Jessica Almasy is amazThis book is GREAT. I listened to the audiobook, and I think this might be the best matchup of book and reader I've ever heard. Jessica Almasy is amazing. (I DID miss out on Marla Frazee's illustrations by listening to it, rather than reading it, but all the illustrations are black and white and I think Frazee's true genius is in the meeting of line and color.)

Clementine is like if Ramona and Fancy Nancy had a baby (and that baby was WAY less annoying than Fancy Nancy.) She's funny and sort of devastatingly logical (a la Ramona) but ultimately extremely good-hearted, just in a messy, impulsive way. I loved her verbal tics ("ok, fine" and "This is called Being Responsible" -- even in the audiobook I could hear that those words were capitalized.)

I can't wait to read/listen to the rest of this series, and I'm going to start recommending it left and right to my patrons....more

**spoiler alert** I really enjoyed this book -- and now I want to learn to play bridge. I liked how slowly it unfolded, I liked how plot really served**spoiler alert** I really enjoyed this book -- and now I want to learn to play bridge. I liked how slowly it unfolded, I liked how plot really served characterization, I liked how light the romance was, I liked how even though it's fiction Richard Nixon would totally have done that, I liked Alton and Lester and Leslie and Gloria and Toni.

I did find the shift in tone a bit abrupt -- the way we went from a realistic novel to Ghost: Now With Bridge. But I think the ending did a really nice job bringing that around -- what is easier to believe: the impossible or the improbable? And I think Alton's shift is believable too -- that he let his parents and Cliff set the rules for him, but no more.

I listened to the audiobook, and I really enjoyed Sachar's reading -- he doesn't even try to do voices, and that's how it should be; Alton is telling you this story, and Alton doesn't do voices.

Also, Alton and Toni's romance doesn't make it past the first semester of college, but they remain bridge partners for the rest of their lives. Thank you, partner....more

Still the best. I still tear up at the final illustration, I still want every outfit Mrs. Barrington wears (seriously, she is one stylish animated teaStill the best. I still tear up at the final illustration, I still want every outfit Mrs. Barrington wears (seriously, she is one stylish animated teacher), I still love Sam and Clara and most of all Grace....more

Clay comes away thinking the moral is that you shouldn't spread/believe rumors about some**spoiler alert** Really good concept, execution... not sure.

Clay comes away thinking the moral is that you shouldn't spread/believe rumors about someone's sexuality because they're damaging, when the ACTUAL point -- and I'm not sure a single character in the book got this -- is that you shouldn't judge people by their sexual decisions -- or rumors of same -- at all.

I did appreciate that ultimately, Clay understands that Hannah herself is responsible for this -- that no one, no matter what choices they made, caused her to kill herself. She could have done something different. But people still deserve to feel bad for the shitty decisions they made.

Also, curious for what incidents she never named, and the hints that this wasn't the first time rumors got started about her... it even seemed like she implied that they MOVED because of stuff that happened in her old town. But that was never fully explored.

So good. I read this not long after it came out, and I remember that I enjoyed it a lot, but I REALLY liked it this time around. It's much funnier thaSo good. I read this not long after it came out, and I remember that I enjoyed it a lot, but I REALLY liked it this time around. It's much funnier than I had remembered, in a very sly way. And I am a sucker for plots where multiple storylines converge, especially when they converge in such a meaningful way. I thought the fourth wall breaking was done appropriately, and I maybe got a little misty just a bit at "You will have to fill in the holes yourself," maybe.

There's a lot going on with race in the book too, but I'm not sure I have any definitive thoughts about it....more